lilwead shouted: “Yet ANOTHER multi screen cinema? Where on earth do these developers think we'll get the money to use them?” There were more in the same vein.

ARE THEY right? Wasn’t first video, then DVD, and now “video on demand” supposed to kill the movies? I thought to myself while sitting watching the excellent “The Grand Budapest Hotel” this week.

Gales of laughter from the packed theatre provided the answer: The cinema is thriving.

The Golden Age of Hollywood was the 1940s. In 1946, immediately after the Second World War, 1.64 billion Brits went to the movies. Or, I suppose I should say, Brits went to the movies 1.64 billion times.

It’s a figure which has never been bettered, before or since.

In the 1940s entertainment was scarce. TV had not yet occupied our livingrooms, and of course there was no internet. If you wanted escapism, the cinema was where it was at.

But cinema audiences fell off a cliff in the 1950s, which was the age of Macmillan’s “you’ve never had it so good”. By 1984 only 54 million cinema tickets were sold, according to figures from the Cinema Advertising Association.

No doubt the new-fangled television played a leading role. Today’s plethora of channels cannot hold a candle to what we got from just four: BBCs 1 and 2, ITV and Channel 4. There was something special about knowing that a large part of the nation was sharing your experience of watching, say, Morecombe and Wise.

But Hollywood fought back, and cinema proprietors introduced the multiplex and invested record amounts in improving the theatrical experience. By 2001 numbers had topped 150 million, and have been rising on and off ever since.

Wrestling with the pop-up ads which have returned to plague my internet browsing while doing the research above, I longed for the simplicity of the familiar old bug-house, as cinemas of old were frequently dubbed. At least you knew where you were with those bugs, and Deet worked its instant magic.

So, long live the cinema. I can be riveted by a boring movie in a packed theatre, yet bored by a riveting one in the comfort of my own livingroom.

Presumably hard-headed business people like those who run British Land and Brent’s Akkeron have done their research too and believe the demand is out there.

According to Cllr Mark Lowry, the driving force behind the Bretonside development, Plymouth Vue complex is the busiest in Europe on a Wednesday afternoon.

And in answer to sarahb3, if the Reel cinema’s owners want to revamp it, that’s up to them. Perhaps a bit of competition will force their hands.

THE company which will occupy the new “Drake Circus Leisure” complex is Cineworld, Britain’s biggest cinema chain.

Last August The Guardian revealed that Cineworld employs 80per cent of its 4,300 staff on zero hour contracts, allowing it to send workers home if business is quiet, or to change shift patterns weekly.

Politicians and trade unions are critical of zero hours contracts. Although they do suit some people, they can leave workers unsure even of how much they will take home from month to month.

Cineworld is not alone: Sports Direct employs 20,000 staff on zero hours contracts, and 82,000 McDonald’s staff are forced to live hand-to-mouth in the same way.

WITH luck, the staff at the new Plymouth Cineworld complex will be run off their feet all the time and won’t need to be sent to bed without any supper.

The ambition must be to suck in audiences from across Devon and Cornwall, as Royal William Yard and our excellent Theatre Royal do already.

The biggest question is why Drake Circus wasn’t a better destination in the first place.

Mall operators in countries as diverse as the United States and South Africa have understood this for decades.

Most big malls are total leisure centres, with restaurants, cinemas and nightclubs alongside the shops.

The idea that you can own the most valuable bit of real estate for miles around and then lock the doors at 6pm seems daft.